SHIT HAPPENS:
The Dialogue of Kitchen girl and Floor boy
7.30 am and the radio in the corner of the countertop flickers on. The hits roll on as croissants and ham slop around on the table. Kitchen girl is looking forward to work, which hopefully will take her mind off last week's events, rancid in her mind like 5 week old bacon. Floor boy flops his way into the half clean cooking area and puts his apron on. They smile, and the radio blares good charlotte's 'misery loves company'. "Ne, Onna no koto wa dou desuka?" Kitchen girl, well aware of the ongoing saga of the half-japanese, is both concerned and interested at the same time. Floor boy's report is none too encouraging, and both continue working on sandwiches and chairs.
Hey Lady, you picky, yo?
Customers stream in non-stop because it is an excessively rainy day and on rainy days everyone loves to shop. Everyone at work knows it and there isn't time for anything. Floor boy's mood worsens with increasingly impatient customers displaying increasingly disgusting table manners, so he is presented with a perfectly toasted and pristinely sliced ham and cheese toastie to cheer him up. His gratitude in itself is most gratifying. Kitchen girl feels much better about her shit week already. It's surprising how helping other people with little things make you feel better about life. Kitchen girl gets kicked off the work area and has to bus tables. Which she hates because she cannot find two tags in a row which means the new girl has taken them from the tables before the customers have gotten their coffee. Floor boy runs to every table to ask before deciding it's a refunded coffee. They look at the hole in the centre of the docket with jaded realization, and throw out the earl grey tea now cold. Poor new girl. She sends the wrong drinks to the wrong table and makes a mess for everyone. It's hard to be patient with the customers bearing down. Kitchen girls climbs back onto her station area and takes on the money making. She can't find the till buttons and sometimes her smoothys are too watery. Floor boy volunteers to make the smoothies. Kitchen girl is very relieved.
Twice in the same day
Two coffees get refunded, Two orders of berry jam are cancelled and they play Sara Bareille's "love song" twice on the radio. Kitchen girl is singing, inspite of horrified looks from customers.
Drink your coffee LAH.
The time whisks past because the hoard of boarish customers order multitudes to eat, drink and fatten up on. The place is atmospheric and crowded with the sounds of clinking glasses and saturday chatter, but kitchen girl merely sees the wealth behind the boars who order heaps but leave half of everything for the bin. The leftovers are plentiful and the dishwasher shakes her head. Upon the normal roar rise complaints about everything. The coffee, the juice, the cake, the food. Nothing's good enough for people who pay $9.95 for a sandwich.
Oi, time to go.
Floor boy and Kitchen girl dig around for a pen to fill in their hours. It's 1300, and the dirty aprons come off. Saturdays are always better with friends. Floor boy leaves to continue his saga while kitchen girl ducks around in the rain to get to her car. Till boy strolls past, on his way to start his shift, having parked his car near Kitchen girl's. She waves enthusiastically and he grins widely as she celebrates the end of work. She passes a lady on crutches who smiles back at her. As she reaches her car, two truckies who have been waiting for a parking spot hail her like a goddess and she waves back with a fly kiss as she jumps into her car and hits the accelerator.
You Pick Me Up
It starts to rain as she pumps air into her car tyres and passes a silly man who washes his car in the expensive car wash when he knows it is raining. By the time she gets home, all she needs is a shower and suddenly her day is bright, all by itself, all by herself in the house. She is glad, and feels a little Pollyanna. she makes a coffee and takes a long sip. To better days. To days with no shit.
(:
